Outlaw (video game)

Last updated
Outlaw
Outlaw Arcade Flyer, 1976.jpg
Arcade flyer
Developer(s) Atari, Inc.
Publisher(s)
Platform(s) Arcade
ReleaseArcade
Genre(s) Shooter
Mode(s) Single-player

Outlaw is a single-player arcade game by Atari Inc., originally released in 1976. It simulates an Old West fast draw duel between the player and the computer. [3] Outlaw was a response to Gun Fight , released by Midway in North America the year before. [4] [5]

Contents

Technology

The game is housed in a custom cabinet that includes a light gun. The game PCB is composed of discrete technology, with game sprites stored in ROM. Playfield graphics are provided by a screen overlay representing an Old West town street. [3]

Gameplay

Players select one of two characters: Half-fast Pete or Billy-The-Kid. Pete is more accurate while Billy can draw faster. An outlaw appears somewhere in the town, the object being to fast draw your gun as soon as he draws his. Shooting him before he shoots you scores points, with points counting toward end-of-game ratings such as "Dude", "Greenhorn", and "Top Gun". [3]

Related Research Articles

<i>Asteroids</i> (video game) 1979 video game

Asteroids is a space-themed multidirectional shooter arcade video game designed by Lyle Rains and Ed Logg released in November 1979 by Atari, Inc. The player controls a single spaceship in an asteroid field which is periodically traversed by flying saucers. The object of the game is to shoot and destroy the asteroids and saucers, while not colliding with either, or being hit by the saucers' counter-fire. The game becomes harder as the number of asteroids increases.

<i>Space Invaders</i> 1978 video game

Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade video game developed and released by Taito in Japan, and licensed to Midway Manufacturing for overseas distribution. Commonly considered as one of the most influential video games of all time, Space Invaders was the first fixed shooter and set the template for the genre. The goal is to defeat wave after wave of descending aliens with a horizontally moving laser cannon to earn as many points as possible.

<i>Area 51</i> (1995 video game) 1995 video game

Area 51 is a light gun arcade game released by Atari Games in 1995. It takes its name from the military facility. The plot of the game involves the player taking part in a Strategic Tactical Advanced Alien Response (STAAR) military incursion to prevent aliens, known as the Kronn, and alien-created zombies from taking over the Area 51 military facility.

<i>Battlezone</i> (1980 video game) 1980 video game

Battlezone is a first-person shooter tank combat game released for arcades in November 1980 by Atari, Inc. The player controls a tank which is attacked by other tanks and missiles. Using a small radar scanner along with the terrain window, the player can locate enemies and obstacles around them in the barren landscape. Its innovative use of 3D graphics made it a huge hit, with approximately 15,000 cabinets sold.

<i>Berzerk</i> (video game) 1980 video game

Berzerk is a multidirectional shooter designed by Alan McNeil and released for arcades in 1980 by Stern Electronics of Chicago. Following Taito's Stratovox, it is one of the first arcade video games with speech synthesis. Berzerk places the player in a series of top-down, maze-like rooms containing armed robots. Home ports were published for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, and Vectrex.

<i>Alias Smith and Jones</i> American Western series

Alias Smith and Jones is an American Western television series that originally aired on ABC from January 1971 to January 1973. The show initially starred Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Jedediah "Kid" Curry, outlaw cousins who are trying to reform. The governor offers them a clemency deal on two conditions: that they keep the agreement a secret, and that they will remain wanted fugitives until the governor decides that they should receive a formal amnesty.

<i>Breakout</i> (video game) 1976 video game

Breakout is an arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and released on May 13, 1976. It was designed by Steve Wozniak, based on conceptualization from Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow, who were influenced by the seminal 1972 Atari arcade game Pong. In Breakout, a layer of bricks lines the top third of the screen and the goal is to destroy them all by repeatedly bouncing a ball off a paddle into them. The arcade game was released in Japan by Namco. Breakout was a worldwide commercial success, among the top five highest-grossing arcade video games of 1976 in both the United States and Japan and then among the top three highest-grossing arcade video games of 1977 in the US and Japan. The 1978 Atari VCS port uses color graphics instead of a monochrome screen with colored overlay.

Gunfighters, also called gunslingers, or in the late 19th and early 20th century, gunmen were individuals in the American Old West who gained a reputation of being dangerous with a gun and participated in gunfights and shootouts. Today, the term "gunslinger" is more or less used to denote someone who is quick on the draw with a handgun, but this can also refer to those armed with rifles and shotguns. The gunfighter is also one of the most popular characters in the Western genre and has appeared in associated films, television shows, video games, and literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomohiro Nishikado</span> Japanese video game developer

Tomohiro Nishikado is a Japanese video game developer and engineer. He is the creator of the arcade shoot 'em up game Space Invaders, released to the public in 1978 by the Taito of Japan, often credited as the first shoot 'em up and for beginning the golden age of arcade video games. Prior to Space Invaders, he also designed other earlier Taito arcade games, including the shooting electro-mechanical games Sky Fighter (1971) and Sky Fighter II, the sports video game TV Basketball in 1974, the vertical scrolling racing video game Speed Race in 1974, the multi-directional shooter Western Gun in 1975, and the first-person combat flight simulator Interceptor (1975).

<i>Commando</i> (video game) 1985 video game

Commando, released as Senjō no Ōkami in Japan, is a vertically scrolling run and gun video game released by Capcom for arcades in 1985. The game was designed by Tokuro Fujiwara. It was distributed in North America by Data East, and in Europe by several companies including Capcom, Deith Leisure and Sega, S.A. SONIC. Versions were released for various home computers and video game consoles. It is unrelated to the 1985 film of the same name, which was released six months after the game.

<i>Gun Fight</i> 1975 video game

Gun Fight, known as Western Gun in Japan and Europe, is a 1975 multidirectional shooter arcade game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released by Taito in Japan and Europe and by Midway in North America. Based around two Old West cowboys armed with revolvers and squaring off in a duel, it was the first video game to depict human-to-human combat. The Midway version was also the first video game to use a microprocessor instead of TTL. The game's concept was adapted from Sega's 1969 arcade electro-mechanical game Gun Fight.

<i>Sunset Riders</i> 1991 video game

Sunset Riders is a side-scrolling run and gun video game developed and released by Konami as an arcade video game in 1991. It is set in the American Old West, where the player(s) take control of bounty hunters who are seeking the rewards offered for various criminals.

The following article is a broad timeline of arcade video games.

<i>Air-Sea Battle</i> 1977 video game

Air-Sea Battle is a fixed shooter developed and published by Atari, Inc. for the Atari VCS. Air-Sea Battle is partially based on the 1975 Atari arcade video game Anti-Aircraft where each player uses a ground-based gun to shoot passing aircraft. The cartridge adds other variants, such as planes dropping bombs on ships and a carnival-themed shooting gallery.

<i>Mad Dog McCree</i> 1990 Western-themed arcade video game

Mad Dog McCree is the first live-action laserdisc video game released by American Laser Games. It originally appeared as an arcade game in 1990.

<i>Tank</i> (video game) 1974 arcade game

Tank is an arcade game developed by Kee Games, a subsidiary of Atari, and released in November 1974. It was one of the few original titles not based on an existing Atari property developed by Kee Games, which was founded to sell clones of Atari games to distributors as a fake competitor prior to the merger of the two companies. In the game, two players drive tanks through a maze viewed from above while attempting to shoot each other and avoid mines, represented by X marks, in a central minefield. Each player controls their tank with a pair of joysticks, moving them forwards and back to drive, reverse, and steer, and firing shells with a button to attempt to destroy the other tank. The destruction of a tank from a mine or shell earns the opposing player a point, and tanks reappear after being destroyed. The winner is the player with more points when time runs out, with each game typically one or two minutes long.

<i>Call of Juarez</i> (video game) 2006 first-person shooter video game

Call of Juarez is a first-person shooter set in a Western milieu developed by Techland. Published in Europe for Microsoft Windows by Focus Home Interactive in September 2006, in Australia by Auran Development in October 2006, and in North America by Ubisoft in June 2007, it was ported to the Xbox 360 by Techland in June 2007, published worldwide by Ubisoft. The game was also released on Steam. In March 2011, it was made available on Xbox Live, and in November 2018, it was released on GOG.com. It is the first game in the Call of Juarez series, which would go on to include three additional titles; Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Call of Juarez: The Cartel, and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger.

<i>The Last Bounty Hunter</i> 1994 video game

The Last Bounty Hunter is a live-action laserdisc video game released by American Laser Games in 1994. Like almost all of the games produced by the now-defunct company, it is a rail shooter and, like the two installments in the Mad Dog McCree series before it, is set in the Old West. However, it takes a more comedic approach than the Mad Dog McCree games in both its story sequences and the characters' comically exaggerated reactions to being shot. Filmed at Old Tucson Studios in Tucson, Arizona, it was one of the company's last releases before it was forced to close down. It was re-released by Digital Leisure in 2002 and was eventually packaged with Fast Draw Showdown by Global VR as an arcade cabinet under the name Six Gun Select.

<i>Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood</i> 2009 first-person shooter video game

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a first-person shooter set in a Western milieu for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Developed by Techland and published by Ubisoft, it was released in North America in June 2009 and in Australia and Europe in July. The game was also released on Steam. In December 2011, it was made available on the PlayStation Store and the Xbox Games Store, in November 2018, it was added to Microsoft's backward compatibility program, making it playable on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, and in September 2019, it was released on GOG.com. It is the second game in the Call of Juarez series, although narratively, it is a prequel to the first game.

Call of Juarez is a first-person shooter video game series created by Paweł Selinger in 2006. Released primarily on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, there are four games in the series; Call of Juarez (2006), Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (2009), Call of Juarez: The Cartel (2011), and Call of Juarez: Gunslinger (2013). Techland has developed all four games, and as of 2018, owns the publishing rights. From 2006 to 2018, Ubisoft held the publishing rights.

References

  1. 1 2 Akagi, Masumi (13 October 2006). ナムコ Namco (in Japanese) (1st ed.). Amusement News Agency. p. 51. ISBN   978-4990251215.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  2. "Production Numbers" (PDF). Atari. 1999. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-10. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
  3. 1 2 3 "Outlaw Killer List of Video Games Entry" . Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  4. "The Dot Eaters: Draw (those pixels)!". Archived from the original on 2007-12-31. Retrieved 2007-12-27.
  5. "1976: Coin-Op Business" . Retrieved 2007-12-27.